Friday, July 4, 2014

That's No Weather Balloon; It's The Nakajima UFO-2!

I do love UFO related toys! Whether you believe they are alien spacecraft or simply modern folklore; UFOs have inspired many amazing toys over the years. Of particular interest to me is the fantastic Nakajima UFO toyline. This series was released in Japan during the 70's under Nakajima's Ultragokin (ultra alloy) label and then marketed in the US during the 80s.
The line consisted of four toys: UFO-1 a cigar shaped mothership, UFO-2 (featured here) a domed scout ship, UFO-3 a disk attack craft with jet fighter missiles, and crowning it all was the awesome UFO Secret Base with numerous cool features. All the toys were sturdily made and loaded with features such as spring loaded missile launchers and catapults for mini saucers.
UFO-2 is my first acquisition from this set. It's a real beauty. As you'll see in the photos it has retractable landing legs, a catapult for mini saucers (four included with this toy), and a cool spinning dome feature. I was fortunate to buy the toy with all of its original packaging which included a very cool illustrated UFO booklet, and a complimentary UFO report form which could be mailed to the manufacturer. In the near future I hope to scan the booklet and display it on the blog. Enjoy!